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2003 Status
2002 Status
Miscellaneous
February, 2003
Back in gear for the month of February. This month I will finish up my gas tank, paint and treat my exhaust system, prep and paint my valve cover & redo the air filter assembly to have it ready for re-installation. After that, I can tend to some of the other rebuilding and getting ready to restore the engine in the car.
I began sanding and getting the seperate exhaust pieces ready for the high temp paint. I have most of everything brand new. The downpipe is new (thanks to Matt of Max Importing & a previous deal). The center resonator is a Bosal from BavAuto, the tii exhaust manifold is new and my tii muffler had only been on the car for a couple months before I dismantled the car almost 2 years ago. I chose to use a high temp paint on the exhaust to protect it better against rust and to help it last longer. It also makes it look a little nicer from underneath :).
The muffler on my tii is an original BMW muffler. Just in case anyone wants to compare it to what they have here are some pictures of it. 
I made a simple home-made incubator to assist in painting the parts and help cure the paint quicker. It worked out pretty well plus kept some of the flying dust out....
I worked on the valve cover at the same time alternating between parts while they dried. I basically cut out a box and placed a small electric heater in front of it to speed up the painting. While the parts are waiting to dry I turned my attention to the air filter box and I finished the gas tank. 
Here are some pics of the exhaust during and after they were painted.
Of course it should go without saying that if you are going to be painting at all you should use some coverings to protect the car from any residual paint drifts in the air. I also took my intake apart and began to clean it up. I used rice grains as an agitator on the inside to remove some of the gunk in there. I simply poured the rice in, covered up all the openings and shook away for a while. I used some brake parts cleaner in between as well. It worked pretty good.... 
February 7, 2003.
The work continues....
I finished up the valve cover paint job. I applied about 2.5 coats on it to try and even it out plus I carefully sanded off all the raised lettering to make it look better. Without a high buffing solution the letters will most likely become dull after a while so I plan on buffing them somehow later on or clear coating them... 
I started to clean up some of the other miscellaneous parts as well to get them ready for reassembly. I also need to refurb my heater box. One of the next and first items to go back in to the engine bay will be the brake servo.... The brake servo was in pretty good shape so I just basically cleaned it up a bit. 
Here are some pics of the intake manifold after I finished painting it with high temp paint: I placed the finished valve cover on the engine head. Looks pretty good to me! :) You can also see in this pic my new heat shield obtained from Paul down at Max Importing (thanks Paul). 
Here you can see where I began to put back the brake servo in the car. The brake servo is held on by 4 13mm bolts and nuts onto the bracket and 2 additional nuts off to the sidewall and through into the wheel well area. February 12 - 27, 2003.
Today I started to get ready to install the clutch and pressure plate onto the crank's flywheel. I just realized I don't have a center pilot bearing. Totally slipped my mind. I will need to obtain one before I can put the pressure plate and clutch on. 
I had to place an order for the new part and will have to wait for it to come in. I gave Paul down at Max's a call and added it to my existing order(s). During the weekend I had gone down to my local Circuit City center and had bought some dynamat like material for sound insulation. I was kind of torn between leaving the firewall bare with just paint or putting back a cover of some sort. The original foam is just terrible in my opinion and pretty much anything I use can be a potential humidity collector - ulimately leading to rust - but, I will take my chances and watch it once in a whle. I chose to insulate it with the sound deadening material. 
February 27 - the big storm hits my area and surrounding tri-state areas. I'm gettin' too old to be shoveling this crap! I spend the next couple of days just diggin' & diggin' & diggin'.... but, since I can't go outside I might as well work on my car in the meantime... I got my pilot bearing from Max Importing and put it inside the crank. There are 2 kinds you can get: 1. ball bearing or 2. sealed. I opted for the sealed bearing type. The ball bearing one would require a felt piece and cover where the sealed is an "all in one" solution and just drops in. I used a dead blow hammer to slowly tap it in place. 
Having the bearing in place, I can now work on throwing the clutch, pressure plate and trans onto the flywheel. I greased up the pilot bearing just a tiny bit in the center to assist the transmission's input shaft in sliding in easier. I didn't have a clutch alignment tool (even though it's only $10) so I made a crude alignment tool out of a screw driver and lots of duct tape surrounding it to center the clutch and plate. The rest was eyeballed. It took some wiggling back and forth but about a half hour later I got it to slide in properly. I put on a new throwout bearing and greased that a little bit as well. Then, I just bolted it in place. 
I proceeded to put lots of blankets around the car to protect the body and then using my engine hoist began positioning the engine over in place. It helps if you have a load balancer but I made do with just angling it up high with my chains. This job is best done with help so I had my assistant (wifey) help me out by guiding the engine while I lowered it in place. She had just arrived from the office. 
Next, it was just a matter of putting it in slowly making sure you are checking all sides and clearances. Patience will be your best friend here if you want to avoid scratching anything. Even with patience I was not able to totally get away without some damage. I hit part of the intake along the top of the firewall but luckily it didn't scratch any paint. It did put a small dent in it, though. The best way is to keep the distributor out and any extra pieces off of the engine. The alternators are a pain on tii's and I opted to not put it in until later to make dropping the motor in easier. Here are the final pics after a total of an hour's time: 
